Hello faithful readers and newcomers! Thank you for tuning in. I know it has been a while since I’ve posted on TravelMyBliss, but that trend should be changing in the coming months.

Preparations are under way! Michael and I are getting organized to leave on a long awaited sabbatical. Our plan is to be gone for over 9 months, returning to our home in Durango, CO next June. We are off on a big adventure, a trip we have talked about doing for many years. But for us, this is more than just a chance to travel. It is a chance to hit the reset button, recharge, explore our lives and the world, and discover anew what it is we want and how we wish to live our lives. It is exciting and daunting at the same time!

We have been preparing for months now, chipping away at a long list of tasks. It’s not easy to leave one’s job, one’s home, and all the routines and mechanisms in place that make one’s life run smoothly! Add to that the possibilities, research, and decisions involved in planning an extended trip overseas and you can begin to see why we have been quite busy!

We have each left our jobs in order to pursue this dream. It is both liberating and anxiety provoking to be free of that commitment! We are trying to focus on the freedom. When we return, we will need to find employment again, but that is a good ways in the future. We are extremely fortunate and filled with gratitude that both our employers have suggested that we might return to them. Michael had been with his company for over 12 years and was gratified and pleased to receive a nice sendoff from his coworkers.

Here is Michael setting off for his last day of work. As you will notice, he has a big grin on his face!

Another aspect of leaving home for this length of time is deciding what to do with our house. We knew we wanted to rent it out, but two things made our rental a little unusual. We wanted to rent our house furnished and we were renting for less than a year. Since we wanted to rent it furnished, we had to be very picky about to whom we rented. Finding a suitable tenant was an arduous process, but I am happy to report that we succeeded in finding a terrific young family. We are thrilled that our home will be well cared for and that we can rest easy about that aspect of our trip. It is always gratifying to find a solution to a problem that satisfies the needs of both sides – a win-win!

So now we are in the throes of packing up belongings to store or to take along, getting those small chores done around the house that have been nagging at us for months, and giving everything a good cleaning. The garage is starting to fill up!

Next week we set off on the first leg of our journey. We’ll be driving the 6 hours to Denver, visiting friends, and then flying to Boston to visit family for a few weeks.

After flying back to Denver, we will drive to California via Durango and some prime camping spots along the way. We’ll spend roughly 6 weeks in California with a quick trip to Chicago at the end of October for a wedding. Then, in early November, we leave the country. Our destinations include the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia. I will go into more detail about our overseas plans later on. For now, I must continue the marathon of packing and tidying, soon to be interrupted by the welcome distraction of a bon voyage party with our friends!

P.S. I plan to do some upgrading of this blog site over the next few weeks, so please bear with me if things look a little different when you next visit. If you find something is not working correctly, please let me know so that I may make adjustments. Thank you!